So yea, the rework came out and I feel like there is a lot to talk about. I am going to make a somewhat long post here so if you don't feel like watching the whining of a player here, be warned.

Aatrox:

Aatrox is one of my favorite champions ever made and I have been exited/scared for the rework for a long time. He is the type of champion that had everything I really liked in my champions.

• He is not mechanically complex and is number/knowledge-based.
• His passive(started playing him after the rework) is one of the more strategic choices in the game. For example:
• If you are at 0 stacks you can't get it activated unless there is more then one champ you can ult. This forces Aatrox to try and get above one stack and calculate the risk of doing so.
• At one stack you can get to your stacked form with a full combo and one offensive hit of your w
• At two stacks you can get to your fully stacked combo without your ult, but you lose all your disengage when you do so.
• St 3 or 4 stacks you can his somebody with an e to w auto attack combo, or a q to w auto combo that forces the enemy to fight a losing duel, however, missing it puts you at 4 stacks and makes it so that if you fuck up the engage you to lose all your lane presence, forcing you to play passively.
• His q, when mastered is one of the most underestimated spells in the game.
• His w is more interesting then people give it credit for:
• If you are in a lane losing trades you have to heal with your w, causing the lane to push and giving the opponent better options to engage/freeze on you, especially when you don't have stacks.
• He has to choose between healing and damaging, and this choice isn't as easy as people think. One wrong use of the w-heal can let an enemy escape or heal up and one wrong w-offense that leaves an enemy one hp can cost you your life.
• He has really mediocre team fight in trade of being one of the best 1v1 and 1v2 champs.

Even his lore and appearance are a lot more fun then people give it credit for.

• his wings move like war banners when he walks.
• He is ancient and seems to think war is something that is needed in existence more than a thing he really enjoys.
• He has some really great voice lines
• His voice actor embodies his character.
• He is not overly chatty because he is an embodiment of war, he rages against the dying of the light, not against the enemy champions. Even his taunts represent this by not actually insulting them but encouraging them to fight.
• "Fight and be remembered as a hero, or die and be remembered as a coward."
• he feels like the ancient one of the Darkin, no longer held down by emotions and anger, he just wants to wage war.

But he also had his fair share of problems:

• His e and r are genuinely boring spells that do not do much more than give him passive stacks and some attack speed.
• He gets countered extremely hard by healing reduction items that the enemy can proc on you.
• His jungle route is extremely forced(if you take him jungle) because you want to keep your passive up between camps.
• He gets outmatched and is extremely similar too Jax and Xin in the jungle and top as an auto attack champion.

So the rework came out and they did some things right and a lot of things wrong(in my opinion). What they did right

• His sword is awesome
• He is more imposing
• The wings in his ult are awesome.
• He looks like a warmonger that could destroy wars with his spells.
• His new w would be great on other champions.

What they did wrong.

• His q and e are just copied of riven including the fucking images https://i.imgur.com/aXQFQaN.jpg (Image courtesy of r/rivenmains on Reddit)

• they kept his r almost the same while it was the spell that had the most potential for good change.

• They gave him chicken wings when he has his ult off, They removed one of his coolest looking visuals, You could say it is for clarity, but the old Aatrox is very clear and they have him wings, To make it even worse they give him smaller wings when he taunts that would look great on his default model. https://i.imgur.com/ptliEAX.png https://i.imgur.com/yVSOyKW.png images from(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0z0XyL6o0I)

• They replaced his w healing mechanic for a flat heal allowing him to easily heal from battles without having to push out a lane.

• They made him Rhaast in character, I like Rhaast, but we already have Rhaast. He quips he jokes and is overly aggressive about anything. This is his thing, don't just steal it.

• His q alone has more skill shots then his old kit.

• He is an ad caster juggernaut where he used to be

• His ult revive in which he can walk looks fucking dumb.

• His r gives him ad and nothing more, it looks cool, but is just as boring.

• His e is even more boring.

• He gets screwed over by mobility so hard that it is kinda sad, Old Aatrox had 2 spells to catch up to a target with gap closers(q for hard engage e to make them burn their gap closer)

• His bloodwell passive got replaced for the 189003201343319339221939322 the max health damage spell.

• THEY KEPT NOTHING OF HIM.

• His q is gone for a 3 step knock up program

• His w is gone for a Blitzcrank pull

• His e is gone for a dash that is genuinely sad to see.

• His r is gone for an ad buff and part of his passive

• The revive that he has now is closer to the fizz e then it is to his old revive(can't be damaged yet can move almost freely).

And these are just my primary complaints. I feel that If I can go on forever. Also, I am not the only Aatrox main complaining, the other one complained too(ha sarcastic ha, because our player base is small) https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/IJYUK8tf-a-former-aatrox-mains-eulogy-for-the-conceptual-destruction-resulting-from-the-aatrox-update . r/aatroxmains (Reddit) is mixed about it but they also realized their favorite champ is being removed.

When the end of season 7 ranked came Aatrox mains got this message: https://i.imgur.com/D9q16a4.png (from https://www.reddit.com/r/AatroxMains/comments/7kpoy2/youre_damn_right_he_does/ )

It is very clear now that in your eyes he really didn't matter. You treated him like you treat old Yorick, never even fixing problems he had(like giving his ghouls a hitbox or making his e only activatable on champions that he already attacked with a ghoul). Then you actually came out and fixed a lot of his problems and made him into one of the most fun bar management champs in the game and I was so impressed. Now it seems that anybody that like that rework get's treated like dirt too.

I was hoping it would be like a Warwick rework instead it was Sion one. You took one champion and replaced him. Maybe people like the new version, but you screwed over everybody that liked the old one.

RIP Aatrox long live the new Aatrox.

Rant over, thanks for reading

Also an answer to some comments these "complaint threads" usually get.

They just gave him more skill expression.

No, they replaced the skill expression he used to have of knowing what you could do with your passive and your w and replaced it completely.

I like his visuals

That is great, me too, they could have done better on the wings tho.

Aren't you some silver 3 noob that doesn't know how to play the game

Yes, still doesn't make these changes better, I cannot control a ship but if one is sinking I can tell that it was not good.

He is extremely fun to play.

Well great, then make a new champ with this kit instead of removing one that had nothing to do with this new kit there are still 2 unknown Darkins prowling out there.

his spells are not a ripoff of riven cause hers function differently.

True but they are still closer to Rivens spells then they are to aatrox current ones.

He was just a right click to win champ

I thought the same thing about adc's until I tried them. It is like comparing Lee sin to Jax. Lee sin is harder to play but has a lot more safety nets(w, r ) when mastered where Jax is easy to play but can get stuck in really bad positions easier. The skill expression is different.

He was boring to play

Glad you think that I didn't think so. I hate this argument as different people enjoy different things.